New Orleans a ‘ghost town’ for 9 months
Although a government exercise last year predicted the course of the disaster, Mr Bush drastically cut back spending on city defences. Work on strengthening vital levees needed to keep out flood water stopped for the first time in 37 years.
Warnings went ignored as Bush slashed flood defence budget to pay for wars
“What you are seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels,” he said last week. “They have been weakened by diversion into terrorism.”
Mr Maestri, the Jefferson Parish emergency director, added: “It appears that money has been moved in the President’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq. I suppose that’s the price we pay.”
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